However, Assistant Minister for Rural Health David Gillespie and the Australian Beverages Council have both rejected the push for a tax, with Dr Gillespie calling it "a lazy solution to a complex problem".

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The AMA called for a sugar tax last Monday in their updated position statement on obesity, as well as stronger controls on junk food advertising, improved nutritional literacy, healthy work environments, and better walking and cycling paths.

President Michael Gannon said a sugar tax was one small part of a fundamental change needed in Australia.

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"For occasional consumers of carbonated beverages this is not going to change their life," Dr Gannon said. "If you're drinking these drinks the way they were designed, then you might find yourself paying 5¢ or 10¢ more tax once or twice a week.

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"What we need to do is to send a message, and we know from tobacco that increasing taxation on an unhealthy product does reduce consumption."

However, Dr Gannon stressed that a sugar tax alone would not solve the "biggest public health challenge facing the Australian population".

"It cannot be seen as a one-stop solution to the obesity epidemic. Two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese; this is a lot more complicated than slapping a tax on Coke," he said.

CPMC, the peak body representing the interests of specialist medicine, also supported a sugar levy in its call for action on Australia's weight crisis last week. On Wednesday the committee released a six-point plan that also recommended recognising obesity as a chronic illness, adopting a national obesity strategy, and making healthier food and drink available in hospitals in schools.

"Other countries are taking a strong stance on the availability of sugar sweetened drinks and food by reducing the availability of them and it is timely and heartening that the US is beginning to do so also," a CPMC statement read.

But Dr Gillespie said the federal government was not in favour of a tax on sugar, and was instead committed to "a multi-faceted approach" including a range of prevention initiatives.

"The government supports sensible, well considered policies – not knee-jerk reactions," he said.

The Australian Beverages Council chief executive Geoff Parker said in a response to the CPMC last week that he was disappointed by the push for a "discriminatory" tax that would not improve public health.

"The McKinsey Global Institute, for instance, classifies taxation as one of the least effective obesity interventions," Mr Parker said. "Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data indicates a decline in added sugar intake over time, yet obesity rates continue to climb."

In March, Britain's conservative government backed a levy on sugary soft drinks from 2018. Scandinavian countries, Hungary, Mexico, France, Chile and the US cities of Berkeley and Philadelphia also have a tax, and after last Tuesday's vote the US cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Albany and Boulder will follow suit.